---
title: I am an old man--I had forgotten!' cried the chief. ' — The Orange Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: I am an old man--I had forgotten!' cried the chief. ' Who acts: I, old man. A sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Orange Fairy Book, Opening, part 3, sentence 17

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I am an old man--I had forgotten!' cried the chief. '

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**Who acts:** I, old man · **What happens:** be, forget, cry · **To what, where:** old man, chief

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This is a sentence of «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, old man), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg3027:3:17
# text = I am an old man--I had forgotten!' cried the chief. '
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	5	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
12	cried	cry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
16	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | I | a old man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **forget** | past · perfect | I | a old man *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **cry** *speech: express* | past | a old man | the chief |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chief=Topic |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Orange Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 3027 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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